The way things are
by Divya
Summary: Hinata has no faith in her powers until someone makes her believe. Her life is turned upside down in 1 day. And that is the day that one boy chooses to love her.RR
1. Default Chapter

Come one come all to the ultimate event of amazing story writing. Heh... or not.   
  
This story sucks, but I wrote it anyway. Read if you wanna... I'm not forcing you to. I'm writing it for kinda my own pleasure but reviews are welcome and so is positive input.   
  
---About the story-----   
  
Ok ok... first of all, I used wordpad to write this so if there's lots of mistakes... SUE ME.   
  
Second of all, its about Hinata and Sasuke.... and soon going to be about Neji. You'll see all in due time what I'm planning.  
  
It is supposed to be a HinaSasu fic... but if I feel like it I can change the way things work and make it something totally different. (which is not highly likely but could happen so be warned!)   
  
Third of all, I kind of warped the way things are in this story. The branch familys are like enemys... they hate each other.. and stuff, like enough hate to have war and stuff. And also I've made Hinata and Hanabi act all hyper around each other becuz I believe that even if one is quiet and the other is serious, when it comes to being with your sister the number one thing your gonna be is hyper or hyper angry, or hyper hyper. So nyeah. =P  
  
Ok lastly... I enjoyed writing this, so I'm pretty confident you'll enjoy reading it.  
  
So... nyeah.  
  
On with the fic!  
  
Remember to R/R.

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**The way things are**  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Hinata wove her hand back through her hair. She looked up at the clouds, a sad smile descending upon her lips. She trudged onward, towards her only comfort...the meadow of flowers. The same place where she constantly went when things seemed hopeless at home. Hopeless for the Hyuuga head family to live in peace; hopeless for them to avert feuds with the branch families; hopeless to just plain live.  
  
She parted the branches of a low grown tree and stepped out into the color washed meadow....... her meadow. She walked onward, taking cautious steps as if not to harm the flowers. She crouched down low in a bed of wild roses. She fingered their petals with her soft, delicate hands, and then she gingerly picked a single flower. Sitting down, her legs crossed, she shut her eyes and wove her smooth fingers around a single petal. Silently she plucked it and whispered in a hushed voice, "There will be peace..." Again she wove her smooth fingers around a second petal and again she plucked it, "There will be war..." Tears leaked out from her closed eyelids but still she went on.   
  
'Rip' "There will be peace..."  
  
'Rip' "There will be war..."  
  
'Rip, Rip, Rip, Rip, Rip'  
  
Hinata opened her crystallized eyes, and stared down at the last petal. Unwillingly she plucked it, "There will be war..." She shut her eyes again, abruptly, as if the pain of the thought was unbearable. She fell back into the bed of flowers, letting out a sigh of misery, shunning her emotions with anger. "Why must there be so much pain?" she asked herself, her voice barely above a whisper.  
  
"...Because that's life..." a calm, controlled voice answered.   
  
Hinata sat up abruptly and forced her eyes to gaze up at the figure looming over her, blocking out the light from the sun. Hinata wiped away her tears quickly with the sleeve of her blue spring kimono. She looked up at the man again... he hadn't moved. He didn't seem to be looking at her... Hinata could tell because the sun fell on the side of his face that was turned away from her, illuminating it with a brilliant light.   
  
"Who are... who are you?" she asked quietly.   
  
The boy looked at her, his dark eyes seizing her up in a single glance. He ignored her question.   
  
"Life is a bitch... don't cry over little things..."   
  
The boy turned around then and slowly made his way back towards the woods, as if all thoughts of the young girl that had been crying were forgotten.   
  
Hinata didn't know how to react, so she slowly stood up and asked for him to wait. Bending down low, she picked a single daffodil and then turned and shuffled over to where the boy stood waiting. His face was indifferent, as if he felt no emotions.   
  
She wiped away a stray tear with one hand and held out the daffodil with the other. Blushing she asked, "Can you tell me your name now?" The boy looked at the flower, and then back up at her. His eyes emanated confusion and Hinata didn't know how to respond so she looked to the ground and kicked nervously at a rock.  
  
"Um... I'm Hinata and um..." She shoved the flower further towards him and then cautiously looked up. His hand was trembling slightly but never the less he took hold of the flower. He twirled it around between his fingers, weighing its beauty, and then he looked back at her. His eyes bore into hers. Hinata looked away hastily.   
  
"Sasuke... My name is Uchiha Sasuke." He spoke the words slowly, weighing them.  
  
"Konichiwa, Sasuke," She said bowing. When she looked up though she was shocked slightly. The boy was crushing the flower in his hand. He was watching it disentegrate into little pieces and rain to the ground with a satisfyed smile playing across his lips.   
  
Hinata's eyes widened. He was somewhat frightening, but none-the-less, it wouldn't be very kindly of her to tell him so. Instead she should invite him to her home for tea.   
  
Summoning up her courage she began to ask, "Would you-"  
  
She stopped speaking when the boy looked back at her. His icy cold eyes seemed to tell her to shut up.  
  
"I shall be leaving now." He dropped the rest of his crumbled up flower to the ground and turned away from Hinata. "Remember to not cry... crying is a sign of weakness... and if I am calculating this correctly... you are not weak. Just confused... nothing more."  
  
He stalked away and Hinata stood staring after him, pondering on his words. 'No,' she decided. 'I am weak... I am at the height of weakness.' She then stopped her train of thought. 'Or maybe... maybe it is the thinking of myself as being weak that really makes me believe it. Perhaps if I train harder... if I train harder then I would be much stronger.' Smiling she turned in the opposite direction that Sasuke had took.   
  
Moving forward she smiled blissfully. "Arigato, Uchiha Sasuke...." she whispered. "Thank-you for opening my eyes."  
  
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Hinata quietly slid open the door to her room. She slipped in and shut it behind her, trying to make the least bit of sound possible.   
  
She had been out all day, training, after her encounter with Sasuke. She hadn't told her father, and so she was sure he would be angry about her being out so long without an escort and his consent. It was past ten O'clock, and way past her curfew.  
  
Hinata hurriedly grabbed her night gown from her small night stand and stealthly made her way towards the shower room. She got in, shut the door, and peeled off her dirty clothes. She turned on the tap, stepped into the bath and savoured the hot water washing all the dirt and sweat off her body. Her shampoo smelled like lilacs and she enjoyed the fragrance as she let it drip down her hair.   
  
"Sister! We have a guest! Where were you today?!!" Hinata's eyes grew wide as she heard her younger sister yell at her from outside her shower room. "Hina.... Father is angry. He wanted you to be here to accept the guest, he acted all embarassed about it and stuff...... but you needn't worry 'cause I filled in for you!" Her sister sounded proud of that, and it didn't sound as if she had missed Hinata's presence in any way. "Oh and if you hurry up I'll show him to you!" Hinata's younger sister seemed gity and uptight about the guest.   
  
Hinata shut off the shower and grabbed a towel, quite annoyed with herself at having forgotten that they were having an important guest arrive today.  
  
"All right then Hanabi... you can take me to him..." She quickly dried herself up and slipped on her night gown. She had her towel wrapped around her head as she finally exited the steamed up shower room.  
  
Her younger sister stood there grinning up at her. Hinata crouched down and took both her hands in hers and stared intently into her eyes. "All right then.... let's go meet this person." She got up and started towards the doorway but her younger sister's giggles followed her. Hinata stopped.   
  
"Sister... you forgot your robe! You can't just walk out of your room like that."  
  
Hinata flushed a deep shade of red. So she had forgotten something .... again. This was getting quite tiresome.  
  
Sighing she turned around and dragged her feet to where her sister stood. "Oh... let's just forget about this guest for a bit. We'll go meet with him tomorrow... ok?"   
  
Hanabi groaned with disappointment, "Aww, come on Sis! You'll think he's really cool! He's all quiet and mysterious all the time!" She grinned up at her. "Plus I heard that he's someone that Father is indebted to... whatever that means."   
  
Hinata's eyes widened. "Is that so..." she placed her hands around her towel wrapped head and unfurled it, letting the wet curls of her hair splatter down her face. Grinning at her sister she grabbed her dark blue robe and shrugged it on. Tightening it from the front she nodded towards her sister. "If he's as important as you say he is, then I should say 'hi' at the least."  
  
Hanabi pumped the air with her fist. "Yeah!" Grabbing onto her sisters hand she lead her out of her room and up the hall way. They passed servants and the such until they got to the guests quarters, which consisted of the most furnished rooms in the whole household. There were 2 doors to the left and 2 doors to the right.   
  
Hanabi stopped for a second as if trying to remember what room it was the guest had been placed in. "Uh... Oh yeah! This one!" She moved forward quickly and let go of her sisters hand as she put hers on the door knob for the room she had choosen.   
  
A thought abruptly dawned on Hinata as her sister turned the knob. 'What was she going to say? Just a simple 'hi' and then 'bye'? It was kind of pointless... and anyways the guest was probably sleeping! Father would kill her and Hanabi if they awoke an important guest from his slumbers....'   
  
"Hanabi.... nO!" Hinata ran forward at the last moment as her sister flung open the door. Instead of hitting into her sister, who had moved out of the way, Hinata went hurling into the guests room instead.   
  
'Wham!'  
  
"Ow....." Hinata sat up. She had just hit into something that was brick solid, and she had pummeled backwards at the intensity of the impact. Dragging herself to her feet the girl looked around the room. It was pitch black. No light was turned on, the only light that there was came through the one open window in the room and from the doorway to the hall. Moonlight sifted in and played upon the furniture and bed. Hinata put out her hand to feel what she had hit into. She pulled her hand back in shock. The thing was warm and it was breathing.   
  
Hanabi walked into the room then. She flicked on the lights and when she did so Hinata screamed and fell back again. She just realized that she had hit into the body of the guest who had been standing in the middle of his room for some odd reason. Hinata quickly got onto her feet and bowed. She was shaking all over.   
  
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me." Hinata absentmindedly picked a stray strand of wet hair from her eyes and brushed it back. She blinked as she found the courage to look up.   
  
Her eyes widened in shock. "S- Sasuke?"   
  
The boy stood looking down at her, his chest rising and falling at an unbelievable speed. Something was wrong, Hinata knew it, but she couldn't help but enjoy the fact that their guest was Uchiha Sasuke.   
  
She laughed nervously as his eyes didn't avert from her face. She turned and looked to her sister who stood grinning beside the doorway.   
  
"Hey Nii-san, this is my sister! " She ran over to Sasuke and pulled really hard on his hand.   
  
'Pop'  
  
"AGHHH!" Hinata fell backwards again, onto her already sore hide, while Hanabi stood staring at the place where their guest had just been.  
  
"It was a shadow replication, Sister..." Hanabi uttered in awe. She turned and looked to Hinata who was finding her way back onto her feet painfully enough. Her eyes were wide.  
  
"Why did he leave his shadow replication here?" Hinata looked around, getting more confused. Her eyes landed on the window. "It's open..."  
  
She walked over with Hanabi at her heels. She stared out of the window and down the roof at the garden. It looked as if someone had walked through that way into the forest... but why... and who?  
  
"Sasuke..."  
  
Hanabi looked at her sister with awe. "You know him?"  
  
Hinata shook her head. "Not really... we just talked today... that's all..."  
  
Hanabi pouted and placed her hands on her hips. "Well you coulda told me! I wouldn't have wasted my precious time dragging you down here if you already knew who he was!" With that, Hanabi stormed out of the room. Hinata was going to follow suit, but then the window caught her curiousity. 'What was he doing out there?'  
  
She shut off the light of the room and then crept over to the window. She pulled her robes up as she slipped onto the window sill and dragged herself out onto the roof. Slowly she inched her way down to the edge of it and found a thick vine weaving its way up the side of the house. Cautiously she lowered herself to the ground. She landed with a thud, and then ducked. 'There are guards around here... why did he risk wandering around?'  
  
Hinata wouldn't have dared to do this ever before, but for some reason it was like she had turned over a new leaf that day. She wasn't going to be the frightened Hinata she had always been; she'd take risks... and hopefully not get caught... and... and... and...   
  
'Oh forget it!' the girl thought, and she turned abruptly around to go back up into Sasuke's room. She climbed the vine and clawed her way up the tiled roof and pulled herself into the guest's room. As she landed in the night entrentched bedroom, a calm voice spoke up from the darkness.   
  
"What are you doing here

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OoO who could that be? -looks around warily-  
  
Newayz R/R!!!! 


	2. Changed thoughts

Ooh, thanks for the nice reviews and stuff. I'm having fun with this now. Hehe... read on! =P And review!!!

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** Chapter 2  
**  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
Hinata's eyes grew wide. She dared herself to turn her head and look to the bed. On it sat a fully clothed form of Sasuke leaning against the headboard, his pose the zenith of relaxation.  
  
"I...uh... I ..." Hinata's voice grew hushed and she began her century old habit of poking her two index fingers together, while teetering nervously on the spot. "I... Hanabi... and... I..." She shut up with a squeak.  
  
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, the moonlight illuminating every detail of his perfectly chiseled face. "I see... " He slipped off his bed and moved towards Hinata. "Well then, if you can't remember what you're doing here, then I suggest you leave."  
  
He hadn't recognized her.... Hinata prayed to God he wouldn't recognize her and tell her father. "I'll leave... I'm leaving... I'll go right now." Hinata rushed by Sasuke but he rapidly turned and caught her arm.  
  
"Wait..." He pulled her near, his eyes trying to depict who he was looking at through the darkness. "What's you name?"  
  
Hinata's bottom lip quivered. 'He wanted her name! Oh dear Lord he was going to tell Father on her!' Hinata shook her head. "I... I must go..." She tugged on her arm, trying to free it from Sasuke's deathly grip. It didn't budge. He held it too firmly. Hinata felt like she was going to faint.  
  
She looked down and her mouth opened with shock. Her robe was coming undone. Well actually, it was pretty much undone after her climbing feat, and now all someone had to do was turn on the light and she would be pretty much exposed in her half see-through silk nightgown. She tugged harder, trying to free herself from Sasuke's grip. "Please... I can't say. I must go... please let go...."  
  
Sasuke shook his head, and instead dragged her over to the moonlit window holding both her arms at once. Hinata felt her heart panic. 'Oh please don't look at me... please, oh please please!'  
  
The light flooded over her face as they stopped near the window. Every part of her body was illuminated... Hinata's eyes were wide with horror. Sasuke's face was indifferent, though she saw his lips twitch in a weird way. After landing his eyes on her, he quickly let go of her hands and looked away. "Wear something more decent next time...... Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment and she struggled to tighten her robe. She felt tears pressuring her eyes as she shuffled out of Sasuke's room.  
  
"I'm... I'm sorry..." She managed to whisper as she shut the door behind herself.

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Hinata couldn't sleep that night. She lay in her bed with her robe on, her arms tightly holding herself.... it was almost as if she'd break if she let go. She cried, and cried until she felt like she had no more tears left to shed. It felt horrible, being exposed like that to someone.... It felt degrading. Hinata felt like she would never be able to hold her head high and look like a true Hyuuga as long as Sasuke was there. She sniffed as she shoved her face further into her pillow.  
  
'_Damn him..... Damn him, and damn him some more_.' She was angry. Angry at herself for entering his room; Angry at him for being so cruel; Angry at the family for having her as a daughter; angry at the Branch family's because they always fought with the Head family; and angry at the World because she couldn't be different. She couldn't be like Sakura who always got the attention of Naruto. She couldn't be like Ino, who was beautiful and loved by all. She couldn't be like Hanabi who was more powerful than her. And most of all she couldn't live up to the expectations of everyone in the family.... she was a failure, a zero, a nothing.  
  
"Ahh, yes Master Hyuuga.... I believe it would be the only way to avert war, and to make the clan stronger and much more advanced." Hinata sucked in her breath as she saw the light outside her room go on. She heard the familiar voice of her Father's advisor and then....  
  
"Hmm.... Too bad we couldn't wait for Hanabi to grow older. I find she would be much better placed at such a thing. She is stronger than her sister you know?" Hinata bit her lip. 'That was father all right.'  
  
"Well, yes Master Hyuuga, but you see if we do not act now we could be in a state of war with the Branch families. A reconciliation marriage with both our clans involved may be the only thing that will assuage their anger."  
  
A slight pause before Hinata's father continued. "Yes, I see. And Hanabi is too young. Well then, it's settled, we will send word to my brother's clan about our decision. Hinata will be betrothed to my brother's son as soon as possible."  
  
"Yes sire..."  
  
"His name is Neji isn't it?"  
  
"Yes sire..."  
  
"Well then, I've heard about him. He is a great fighter, and so he will be a great father to the children of the strongest clan in Konoha. Our blood line shall flourish and our feuds shall be at an end."  
  
"Yes sire. A great success if you ask me..."  
  
"Hmm...."  
  
A slight pause, "Sire shall I inform your daughter?"  
  
Another pause. "No.... you needn't do that. I'm sure she'll understand when the time comes for her union with Neji. She isn't the type that is willing to object. And she is also to have her advanced training to start tomorrow. Now, let us go and start on our letter. Come now..."  
  
The hallway light shut off and the faraway footsteps of her father and his advisor echoed into nothingness.  
  
Hinata was breathing heavily. Her tears had disappeared. Her bottom lip had started to quiver but she bit it... hard. Blood leaked down from it but the young girl didn't bother to lick it away. She undid her robe and threw it to the ground beside her bed. She lay back into the soft pillows without a sound. She was too shocked to say anything.  
  
'Neji? Was it the same Neji that had hated her... that had wanted to kill her even? Was that the Neji that she was going to be betrothed to?' Tears finally made their way into her eyes, blurring her vision. "What about Naruto-kun?" Even though Hinata knew she had no chance with him, she still hoped that maybe one day he'd notice her...  
  
She held her head in her palms, her throbbing forehead becoming the cause of immense pain. _'My future.... its being decided for me..._' Hinata shut her eyes tight. _'I get no say in this whatsoever... I have to marry Neji.... but what if... what if I don't like him? Will I be forced to? Must I? Can I not live my own life the way I want to?_'  
  
Somewhere far off a strange voice in her head answered. '_No Hinata... you must live whatever fate has been chosen for you.... do not refuse Neji... it is meant to be_.'  
  
Hinata shut her eyes. _'Or was it_?' She did not know... but she would find out soon enough. 

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It's not that unusual that cousins are being married. I know some religions in which that is accepted. Kinda different, but neh, I think Neji ish cool.. tee hee... Plus I have a question. How many of you like reading Yaoi? I mean, I might write a new story about that.... heh, (Don't murder me!)

Oh and about Hinata's nightgown, I don't think it'd be reallllly exposing. Just enough to make her very very embarassed. Heh. Whatever. Make it however much exposing as you want in your thoughts.

Newayz R/R. (Sorry for the mistakes and stuff. Im in a rush....... Heh, exams. -faints-)

Frum,  
Divya


End file.
